Help us reach our goal of serving 100 million by June 2018 through the participation in youth, hunger, vision and environmental projects that help benefit our communities. This month we have encouraged Lions to take part in the Protecting Our Environment campaign with a special goal of planting 10 million trees. Be sure to report your club’s activities to MyLCI so that we can keep track of our global impact. Don’t forget to post pictures to your club’s social media site and use the hashtag #LIONS100.

A premature baby was hospitalized at Hospital Iríarte in Quilmes, a city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The hospital did not have the equipment to provide the care the baby needed, and the baby could not be relocated. So the Project for the Elimination of Avoidable Childhood Blindness brought the necessary equipment to the baby.

LCIF’s SightFirst program and the World Health Organization (WHO) have been working together on the Project for Elimination of Avoidable Childhood Blindness. This partnership has strengthened or established 45 needs-based pediatric Lions eye care centers around the world, providing preventative, therapeutic and rehabilitative eye care services to 140 million children.

Melvin Jones was born on January 13, 1879 in the Arizona Territory at Fort Thomas. As a young boy, his family moved to the Midwest where he attended school and studied law. In 1913, he established the Melvin Jones Insurance Agency and joined the Business Circle, but he had greater desires. He started inviting other clubs together to form one, large organization. From the very beginning Melvin used his leadership and organizational skills to lay the foundation for Lions Clubs International. A few years before his passing in 1961, the Lions International Board of Directors added “Founder” to Melvin’s title of Secretary-General.

Be sure to watch the video above –the second in a series of centennial videos –to see Melvin’s commitment to the success of Lions Clubs International. You can download or view the entire Lions Quarterly on the Lions News Network.

European and Mediterranean Leos would like to invite Leos from around the world to participate in the Leos Go Wheee! – WheelMap Activity. The activity encourages individuals to find and mark wheelchair-accessible public spaces. Leos can add and update information on Wheelmap.org from April 1 through June 30, 2015.

Wheelmap.org is a community-driven project to develop an online map that marks wheelchair-accessible public spaces. The map allows wheelchair users to plan their routes more efficiently, move more freely and participate more easily in society. As a tool for raising awareness, Wheelmap.org also contributes to building a more inclusive environment.

Leos interested in participating in the Leos Go Wheee! – Wheelmap Activity can add new places to the map and edit information. To participate, follow the steps outlined below:

1. Download and open the Wheelmap app on your iPhone or Android

2. Register and log in with a Wheelmap account

3. Take a walk and begin mapping with your Leo club (Don’t forget your measuring tape!)

4. Find the appropriate location on the app and assign an accessibility status: green, yellow or red

Together, Leos have added over 600 locations to the map. Slovenian Leos participated in the project last summer, and the Ljubljana Leo Club marked 61 locations in just 90 minutes. Leos noted that only half of the locations in Ljubljana were fully wheelchair-accessible. By participating in the Leos Go Wheee! Activity, Leos can raise awareness about challenges facing wheelchair users.

Congratulations Lions! We have just reached 1.4 million members and we couldn’t be more excited! That means we have even more hands to help make a greater impact not only locally, but on a global scale too.

With our Centennial just around the corner, we have encouraged Lions to help us reach our Centennial Service Challenge goal of serving 100 million people by June 2018 and to help increase our membership.

By asking just one person to join your Lions Club during our Centennial Celebration, you could earn special limited edition awards.

So what are you waiting for? Keep the momentum going and Ask One today!